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Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole tops players in Tuesday’s four league division series playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Tuesday’s league division series games: Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, Nick Castellanos of the Phillies and Trea Turner of the Dodgers.
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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander is 2022 Box-Toppers Player of the Year, regaining the season Box-Toppers points lead on the next-to-last day of the season.
Verlander took the lead with 26.0 Box-Toppers points after earning 2.0 points as Player of the Day Tuesday, passing Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani (24.7).
Read MoreAstros pitcher Framber Valdez is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day on the regular season’s final day.
Valdez struck out 10 over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 3-2 win over the Phillies.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Justin Verlander is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, retaking the season Box-Toppers points lead on the next-to-last day of the season.
Verlander struck out 10 over five hitless and scoreless innings, allowing one walk, in the 10-0 win over the Phillies. Verlander was pitching a no-hitter through five innings, but was pulled after 77 pitches, saving himself for the postseason. The no-hitter continued until the ninth inning, when Astros reliever Will Smith gave up three hits.
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Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani regains the lead in this week’s Box-Toppers player rankings report, passing Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, who led for eight straight weeks.
Ohtani also takes the lead among American League pitchers from Verlander. Meanwhile, the other three category leaders remain the same: Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins leads National League pitchers, Pete Alonso of the Mets leads NL batters and Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters.
Read MoreMets pitcher Max Scherzer is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Scherzer threw six perfect innings, striking out nine and allowing no baserunners, in the 7-2 win over the Brewers. He was pulled after 68 pitches as he was making his first appearance after being reinstated from the injured list. Mets relievers subsequently gave up four hits and two runs.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Gerrit Cole is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to ninth in season player rankings.
Cole struck out 14 over 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run, five hits and two walks, in the 7-1 win over the Twins.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Kershaw struck out six over eighth scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks, in the 9-1 win over the Angels.
Read MoreGiants pitcher Carlos Rodon is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to eighth place in season player rankings.
Rodon pitched a complete game, striking out 12 and allowing one run, three hits and two walks, in the 3-1 win over the Padres.
Read MoreBraves pitcher Max Fried is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to second in season player rankings, first among National League pitchers.
Also Saturday, two other player rise in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 after earning Player of the Game honors—White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease rises to sixth place and Marlins pitcher Pablo Lopez rises to 10th.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Kershaw struck out 13 over seven perfect innings—allowing no hits, runs, walks or baserunners of any kind—in the 7-0 win over the Twins. However, he was pulled after seven innings and 80 pitches in his first start of the season. Reliever Alex Vesia gave up the only hit to the Twins in the eighth inning.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Max Scherzer holds the lead in five of Box-Toppers’ main leaderboards at the end of 2021, most of any player.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole leads four Box-Toppers leaderboards, second most of any player.
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Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and the two active players most likely to pass his total won’t likely do it until 2023 at the very earliest.
Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009.
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Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer tops Box-Toppers list of the top 100 players of 2021.
Scherzer had 25.1 Box-Toppers points during the regular season. It is his fourth season with 25.0 or more Box-Toppers points. Only two other players have as many or more seasons with 25.0 or more points.
Read MoreThough Box-Toppers would not have voted David Ortiz as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it’s hard to argue that his performance on the field was not worthy.
Yet, several other candidates with Hall-of-Fame worthy careers were not voted for induction Tuesday because of their ties to the steroid era. In fact, it can be argued that righteous baseball writers did a noble thing Tuesday by blocking three such candidates—Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa—for their 10th and final time on the ballot.
Read MorePadres pitcher Dinelson Lamet had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2020 to 2021.
Lamet, who earned 9.0 Box-Toppers points in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season (fifth among all players and third among National League pitchers), earned 2.0 points in 2021. After a stellar 2020 season, he battled injury early in 2021, struggled and went from a starter to a bullpen pitcher.
Read MoreAnalyzing 27 years of Box-Toppers points leaders among American League and National League pitchers and batters each season.
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During the 2021 season, Clayton Kershaw rose to second place and Max Scherzer rose to fourth place on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points top 10 list.
Kershaw was ranked third overall and among all pitchers at the end of 2020 with 235.2 career Box-Toppers points. The Dodgers pitcher rose to second place on June 27, 2021, with 246.6 points, passing Pedro Martinez, who had continuously held the second-place spot for 22 years. Kershaw finished 2021 with 13.4 points for the season and 248.6 career points.
Read MoreBox-Toppers is voting for nine players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the 2022 Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) ballot.
Of the nine players, three are in their first year on the ballot—Tim Lincecum, Jake Peavy and Mark Teixeira. The other six all return after not receiving the necessary votes to make the hall last year, including Curt Schilling, who is on the ballot for his 10th and final year.
Read MoreBox-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. Players earn Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.